Brian Koch is the owner of North Portland’s Lombard House pub, and like many others he is grappling with a pandemic, a pivot to delivery, and worldwide protests of an unjust system that have implications far more important than beer and bars.

Epic Brewing introduces Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist

It’s Big Bad Baptist season, time for Epic Brewing’s much anticipated Imperial Stout and it’s variants which this year includes a new Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist. Also returning is Big Bad Baptista, a Mexican coffee version of the classic, and of course the OG will also be back.

More from a press release:

“Excess equals success. Excess equals success. Excess equals success It’s time to triple down!” This was the mantra that brought us the 2017 rare release of Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist and it perfectly sums up Epic’s attitude toward brewing. Here is the bar – how do we raise it or even break it, how do we push the envelope, how do we make Epic, well, more epic? We thrive at Mach 1, with the music all the way up, our hair on fire and throwing caution to the wind.

So, that’s what we did when Kevin Crompton, our brewmaster, opened a bottle from the first run of 2016 Double Barrel Big Bad Baptist. After the first sip he said “The barrel-aged coffee in this is awesome! What other badass ingredients can we age in whiskey barrels?”

It turns out there are only a few other ingredients that have the rare ability to absorb barrel character, and the one at the top of our list that had us salivating was shaved coconut. We went straight to work on mocking up our latest idea to push our taste buds to the breaking point and the result was beyond what we imagined.

The trio of barrel-aged Imperial stout, barrel-aged Colombia Risaralda coffee, and barrel-aged coconut (yes we put coconut into barrels and let it age), plus an added dimension from using a percentage of rum barrels, come together in a ridiculously perfect way. The coconut doesn’t steal the show but it is the first thing you notice, even when you’re pouring the beer- then it mellows revealing the coffee, malt, barrel, cacao, whiskey, rum, toast, and finally, more coconut. You get the idea – this baby is big and complex.

“It’s the kind of beer that you need to just buckle up and enjoy the ride. There’s a lot going on in the beer but just like listening to music you can pick out different parts and the flavors continue to evolve as you fall down the rabbit hole,” says Brewmaster, Kevin Crompton.

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The Return of – BIG BAD BAPTISTA

Back for another year is our popular ode to the Mexican coffee Café de Olla. It’s Big Bad Baptista and he’s packing some pretty hefty street cred, like a perfect 100 Points at Ratebeer.com, a 91 from Craft Beer and Brewing in February 2016 and 3 titles from Ratebeer.com’s “Best of Awards”: Best New Beers 2016, Top 100 best Beers in the World and Best Beer by Sub-region, Utah. So what’s all the fuss over? First, we start with Big Bad Baptist and add a carefully selected blend of Mexican coffees roasted for us by Blue Copper Coffee in Salt Lake City, along with cinnamon, vanilla and a healthy dose of locally-produced cacao nibs from Solstice Chocolate.

“I think what makes Baptista so special is the combination of authentic ingredients and our brewers exceptional execution. It’s my favorite beer to pull out after a long day of skiing to enjoy while warming up by the fire,” says Epic Co-Founder Dave Cole.

BIG BAD BAPTIST, the OG and leader of the pack

This year’s Big Bad Baptist will feature coffee from Denver’s Corvus Coffee Roasters. We selected their Dead Reckoning Espresso blend, which features Guatemalan Coffee paired with natural and washed coffees from Ethiopia. Honestly, when we sat down with them to cup their coffees and they told us they blended their espresso with the whiskey lover in mind, we knew we’d come to the right place. The Salt Lake City releases will feature lively, natural-processed Ethiopian coffees roasted by our friends at Blue Copper. They worked with us to fine tune the roast to bring out a balance of fruity, blueberry and pomegranate notes and a roasted character which compliments the cacao nibs. Overall, this year’s Big Bad Baptist favors the fruit character of both the coffee and cacao more so than the roasted and toasted flavors of previous releases. This subtle shift reveals more of the nuance in each blend and the barrel character that drives the beer’s flavor.

All three Baptists will be distributed nationally to all of Epic’s markets and will be available in stores the last week of November.

Founder of The New School and most frequent contributor Ezra Johnson-Greenough has worked in the craft beer industry for almost 10 years, doing everything from illustrating beer labels to bartending at renowned beer bars and breweries like Belmont Station, Apex, Laurelwood and Upright Brewing. He has also had a hand in creating events like the Portland Fruit Beer Festival, Portland Beer Week, and the Brewing up Cocktails series. He is available for freelance consultation in marketing, events, graphic design and branding.
Contact: SamuraiArtist@NewSchoolBeer.com